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The Open University in Scotland's Outcome Agreement with the Scottish Funding Council 2020-2023

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The Open University in Scotland's Outcome Agreement with the Scottish Funding Council 2020-2023 THE OPEN UNIVERSITY IN SCOTLAND’S OUTCOME AGREEMENT WITH THE SCOTTISH FUNDING COUNCIL 2020-2023 Contents The Open University ...............................................................................................1 Geographical reach .....................................................................................................1 Our curriculum .............................................................................................................2 Our staff .............................................................................................................................3 Equality Impact Assessment ...............................................................................3 UK departure from the European Union ................................................... 4 The Learner ............................................................................................................... 5 Commission on Widening Access Implementation ...........................5 Mental health and well-being ............................................................................6 Student safety ...............................................................................................................7 Gender ...............................................................................................................................7 Student voice .................................................................................................................9 Widening Access and Retention Fund .......................................................9 Working with colleges (Articulation) .............................................................9 Equality and diversity ..............................................................................................11 Students in secure environments ..................................................................11 School engagement................................................................................................12 Students from care experienced backgrounds ................................... 13 Carers, veterans and estranged students ................................................ 13 Health related outcomes .....................................................................................14 The System ..............................................................................................................15 Skills alignment .......................................................................................................... 15 Early learning childcare ........................................................................................16 Graduate destinations ..........................................................................................17 Languages .....................................................................................................................18 Climate change emergency ..............................................................................18 Research And Innovation ...................................................................................19 Research ..........................................................................................................................19 Effective knowledge exchange and innovation ...................................19 Data Table ................................................................................................................21 THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OPEN TO PEOPLE, PLACES, METHODS, AND IDEAS 1. Social justice and equality of opportunity are at the heart of everything The Open University does. Widening access to higher education is the ambition on which the University was founded. The Open University is committed to extending opportunities for educational success to all who wish to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential. 2. The Open University has always had an open entry policy whereby our students can study with us at undergraduate level with no requirement for previous qualifications.The Open University in Scotland works with the Commissioner for Fair Access to Higher Education and plays an essential part in developing a national framework for access. 3. The flexibility of part-time study allows students to work and learn at the same time with most of our students studying to improve their careers. Of our 17,000 students in Scotland, 75% are in full or part-time employment. Most of our students are mature learners with the median age of our undergraduate entrants at 27. Geographical reach 4. The Open University (OU) is proud to be the only university operating across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are equally proud to bring significant benefits to Scotland, derived from being part of the UK’s largest higher education institution. The teaching of OU students resident in Scotland is funded by the Scottish Funding Council. 5. In Scotland, The Open University reaches across the entire country, giving us an unparalleled ability to undertake nationwide developments and support the Scottish Government’s Strategic Objectives. 6. Our students are not required to attend a campus and can study with us wherever they might live, with access to our world-class online library and support services. This is of particular benefit to the 21% of our undergraduate entrants who live in remote and rural parts of Scotland, and who would otherwise have limited options to access higher education. 7. The Open University works closely with partners across the whole of Scotland. We collaborate with employers, trade unions, public sector bodies, institutes, private, third sector and community organisations, universities, colleges and schools. By continuing to develop such strategic partnerships, we will enhance our position as the leading provider of flexible learning and encourage more people to access higher education. 1 8. OU students are not just in Scotland: we have over 168,000 students across the UK, throughout Europe and worldwide, including those studying with us through our partnerships and accredited institutions. The Open University delivers development programmes in partnership with governments, NGOs, funding institutions and local partners. Our programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia address areas such as front-line health services, teacher education and English language teaching. The Scottish Government currently funds the Zambian Education School- based Training (ZEST) project, enabling the OU to work with World Vision Zambia to develop and roll out a high quality, school-based, professional development programme which will reach up to 4,000 primary school teachers and leaders across Zambia’s Central Province. The project began in October 2017 and will run to 2022. 9. The Open University is also accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). MSCHE is an institutional accrediting agency recognised by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). It defines, maintains, and promotes educational excellence across institutions with diverse missions, student populations, and resources. Our curriculum 10. Our qualifications are fully aligned with the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) and students can study for these as well as individual, credit-based modules on a standalone basis. 11. We offer a wide range of qualifications, including the uniquely flexible suite of Open qualifications: the Open CertHE, Open DipHE and BA/BSc Open, which allow students to tailor a qualification around their interests and career needs. 12. The development of our modules is a uniquely collaborative process delivered by multi-disciplinary course teams. These teams include: OU academic staff working in partnership with colleagues from other educational institutions; educational technologists and media specialists contributing pedagogic and technical expertise; and external assessors to ensure academic standards are consistent with other universities. This model has helped to build the University’s reputation for pedagogical innovation, academic rigour and quality, and has been adopted by distance teaching institutions worldwide. 13. The Open University is a mass communicator of free, informal learning nationally and globally through its OpenLearn website, OpenLearn Create, iTunesU, the OU channel on YouTube, and FutureLearn - a private company jointly owned by The Open University and The SEEK Group. 14. The OpenLearn website gives the public free access to learning materials from the OU. These materials either come from our modules or are developed to support our BBC television and radio programmes, and provide expert comment on topical issues. All OpenLearn courses are also available on Google Play and Amazon for Kindle. 15. OpenLearn Create is an innovative open educational platform where individuals and organisations can publish their own open content, open courses and resources. It allows The Open University in Scotland to co-create open educational resources (OER) with partners, such as the Carers Trust and Parkinson’s UK. 16. The University’s OpenSTEM Labs provide users with access to laboratory and field investigations in a distance learning context. The OpenSTEM Labs currently have four distinct zones, three of which connect users to equipment and data via authentic, web-based interfaces: the OpenScience Laboratory, the OpenEngineering Lab, and the OpenScience Observatories. The fourth zone houses the University’s teaching labs
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